Australian Quilt Convention

I visited the AQC on the last day, Sunday, and it was nice to see all the quilts on display as well as browse the shops to see what might be new, though reading in blog land leaves less to be discovered this way. I like to see the Best of the Best and Challenge quilts where many quilters interpreted the same theme so differently. The Beneath the Southern Sky exhibition was very interesting with many techniques showcased. I especially liked this NZ one which reminded me of the Reg Mombasa style.

The selection of Japanese Cotton Poem quilts also had a number of variations on the log cabin block used in their construction:

 Diamonds:

 Squares:

 Rectangles around a diamond:

I did a Make and Take class with Lisa Walton where we carved a simple design on an Ezy Carve stamp and printed or rubbed onto a fat quarter of hand dyed fabric, using metallic paint, shiva sticks and oil crayons. it was quick and effective. I am going to embellish mine with stitching and make into a cushion I think.

Favourites at the Quilt Showcase

I did two lots of Quilt Angel duty, which was bad for my feet but great for getting a detailed look at most of the quilts!

It was interesting that most of my favourites won ribbons.

This won best of show:

This was the winner in my category:

I have always liked the reproduction fabrics in yellows and this deep navy.

This New York Beauty in batiks really caught my eye and was also a winner:

My quilter, Karen, won with her Amish style quilt:

And these two I just liked as they were pretty and fresh!

My Quilt at 2011 Showcase

My first entry in a Victorian Quilters Guild Showcase - "Nest" - entered in the very popular category of "two person: amateur and professional". It was a thrill to see it hanging there with all the other entries and although I didn't win a ribbon, I am glad I did enter.

Machine pieced by me and machine quilted by Karen Terrens of Quilts on Bastings.

AQC- Part 2

Here are the threads I purchased. A green multi in 30 wt Mirage for accent work, caramel Dazzle for my "Aurora" quilt bobbin work, red 50 wt Konfetti for my French General Rouenneries machine quilting, and 100 wt neutral tone Invisafil for the Kaffe Fassett Snowball quilt and ditch lines of the drunkards path quilt. That's going to be a lot of quilting, but what a difference the "right" thread will make.

Here's a little sample of my overnight stitching.

I admired many examples of machine quilting amongst the quilts on display too.

 I aslo purchased some fabric and ric rac for another two tea cosies.

AQC - Part 1

L an M joined me at AQC today and what an interesting day we had. The Royal Exhibition Building is so grand and a lovely venue for this "quilting only" show.

Autumn is a perfect time of year for the show here, as the building does not have heating or cooling.

The stalls were busy and it was hard to get to the "front" to have a look! We very much enjoyed a free talk on "colour" by Reece Scannell whose fabrics we admire. I used some on my Kaffe Fassett charm squares quilt, in the half square triangles (mixing designers I know!). The information was very useful. I attended a "Make and Take Class" on English paper piecing by Blue Willow Cottage of Werribee and found it useful. A star half done. A future hand project perhaps?

I enjoyed the quilt displays and they were well lit this year with spots in some areas. A favourite quilter of mine, Ruth de Vos, was a featured quilter.

I also got some great information from a free talk by Barrie of Wonderfil Threads and a sample of rayon thread to try in my machine overnight as I was coming back the next day. I had never succeeded in stitching with rayon as I my machine has a horizontal thread spool holder, and I had tried various modifications to get it to run but alas no luck. It ran like a dream with her suggested set up! Now I can finally machine quilt my very large "Lime and Soda" drunkards path block quilt. Thanks also to the display quilts at Tulis Textiles for quilting ideas.

Goldfields Quilters Exhibition

Last Saturday I just happened to be able to fill in some time, while the boys were bike riding, at the Goldfields Quilters' Exhibition in Castlemaine. It was a nice selection of quilts, many of them reproduction style as the local patchwork shop Threadbear specialises in reproductions. What a lot of work involved in these! We got to pick a viewers' favourite and mine was this one:

Unfortunately I didn't get the maker's name but it was hand quilted and hand pieced in many many hexagons.

I also had a walk around the centre of town and snapped some of the handsome gold rush era buildings.

Court House:

 Community Centre:

 Town hall:

Post office:

Imperial Hotel ("renovator's delight"):

I also snapped these wonderful tiles (which would make a great quilt pattern!) on someone's front path:

Shibori Silk Scarf

Yesterday at the Craft Expo in the Royal Exhibition Building I did a Make and Take class with Unique Stitching's Cecile Whatman. It was Shibori dyeing of a silk scarf. In one hour we didn't have time for the traditional shibori with thread but learnt about the method and used rubber bands instead. I am REALLY happy with the way my scarf turned out, what do you think? Some of the effects were quite unexpected - such as the row of orange spots near one end and the aqua tip on one circle ... not sure how I achieved those! I tried to keep the colours separate and only used the two, many other ladies used three or more colours and their scarves looked very much all the same colour by the finish, however I'm sure when they were rinsed and undone they would have had very nice patterns from the resists.

Great day out at AQC

Today the Connected Quilters met up at the Australian Quilt Convention at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. There were a few good new things this year - it was held at a cooler time of year so the temperature in the building was very pleasant, and some of us bought tickets online (with no booking fee) which made it quicker to get through the door. A couple of new additions to the quilt displays were good too - the 12 x 12 set of mini art quilts and the Quilters Companion magazine cover quilts. Shops galore to browse of course!

I couldn't resist a few 30 cm pieces of William Morris fabric from Patchwork by the Sea as they match my tea towels from York.

I also bought a little packet of Lisa Walton's fusibles - leaves - to trial and the show special basting spray at about half price. The threads were also to trial - a 50 wt Aurofil (I love the 40 wt) and a 50 wt Wonderfil, both for piecing.